Director: Jean-Marc Vallee
Writer: Nick Hornby (Screenplay) Cheryl Strayed (Memoir)
Starring: Reese Witherspoon, Laura Dern, Thomas Sadoski, Keene McRae, Michiel Huisman, W Earl Brown, Gaby Hoffman
Plot: A chronicle of one woman’s 1,100-mile solo hike undertaken as a way to recover from a recent personal tragedy.
There may be spoilers the rest of the review
Verdict: Slow Drama
Story: Wild starts as we Cheryl (Witherspoon) getting prepared for her 3-month hike along the Pacific Crest Trail to help herself get over the recent death of her mother. We watch how Cheryl’s life had been fallen apart before this challenge including throwing away her own marriage.
Wild is a slow drama showing how one woman went on her own redemption story going on an almost impossible hike that even the most experience drop out off. We get to see what drove her to make this decision but in the end it feels like a glorified story that we have seen before. You do have to give Reese Witherspoon praise for her performance but in the end this is easily a forgettable film that got Oscar nods for no reason.
Overall: Disappointingly overrated drama that is fine but nothing special.
Rating
3 replies on “Wild (2014)”
I read the book a year and 1/2 before I saw the movie. It touched me quite a bit. I was going through a hard time and I identified with Cheryl Strayed. I found the movie compelling and a meditation on loss and getting your shit together. The only part that really turned me off was the scene with the horse.
I watched this whilst waiting for the Oscars to start 2 years ago. With the time difference it was very late at night, and what a bad choice for a movie to wake me up! I think I enjoyed it, but I don’t remember much of it to be honest 🙁
Great review!
thanks, i do feel it will end up being forgettable in the end